A Praying Life

Awakening Intercession,A conversation (2)

By Yvonne Perkins

December 11, 2017 | 8:23 am

I encourage you to read the first blog on Awakening intercession so you will have the foundation for understanding all future blogs on this subject. However, I will briefly share with you highlights of that blog. Intercession is the act of interceding for another person, a situation or circumstance. An intercessor is one who has responded to the call of God. Intercessors are not easily offended. Intercessors guard their eye gates, ear and mouth gates. They do not gossip nor are they nosey people inquiring about everything in your life when you ask them to pray for you. Intercessors are constantly searching themselves to ensure their life is pleasing to the father, they keep a repenting spirit and a forgiving heart. They are totally dependent on God and believe 100 percent that the word of God is true and effective. Ok, you really must read the previous blog to get an understanding.

Continuing our conversation on the characteristic of an intercessor it is important for you to know and understand that when you accept this call to intercession that Satan will come after you. My mentor, Prophetess Rose Mary Blackwell, train me to know “You will be hit”. Any active soldier in a war can expect the enemy will attack them. You must know that God has given you weapons to fight against the enemy and that none of the weapons formed against you will prosper. Know your weapons i.e. word of God, Blood of Jesus, the sword, fasting and prayers, keys of heaven to bind and loose, allow and forbid, the power of agreement, decree and declare etc.

The enemy will try to distract you by using your circumstances and your family to cause you to become frustrated etc. I'm convinced that a lot of situations our unsaved family members face is not because they are so evil etc. but because the enemy wants us to lose focus. So we must be confident that as we take care of God’s business he will assign someone to intercede for us. Intercessors are dangerous people when they know their God, their weapons and walk in their God-given authority.

Intercessors must practice training their spirits to intercede. Let me ask you this, how many times have you heard an ambulance going by, a police car, witness an accident etc.? How many schools do you drive by, how many different communities, businesses, churches etc? Do you pray when you hear the ambulance, police, are you praying as you drive through different communities, or you see people standing at the bus stop etc.? I CHALLENGE you in the next few weeks to become aware, conscious of these things and intercede.

As you walk close to God he will begin to share secrets with you about people, circumstances etc. What God shows to you is not necessary to be revealed even to that person. God may just want you to intercede for them. Ask God, what is this I’m seeing, hearing, feeling and what am I to do with this information? The desire of every intercessor should be to advance in the area of intercession. There are some who have given themselves over to prayer and are consider Generals in the field of intercession. My Apostle Richard D. Henton was such a person. His Church, Monument of Faith was built on prayer and continues to stand strong because of that strong foundation. There is prayer going on every day except Sat. When you study the life of Benny Hinn, Cerullo Morris, Juanita Bynum, Cindy Trimm and Prophetess Rose Mary Blackwell you will learn that they spend hours in prayer daily. Their anointing comes from hours of being in the face of God.

The veil has been torn and we don’t need to go to the priest to confess our sins or have the priest to go before God for us. Nevertheless, ‘God is looking for someone to stand in the gap. He doesn’t need us necessarily to be intercessors but he desires us to be his intercessors. Let’s me share with you how I learned this lesson. There is a ministry I work with, Standing In The Gap founder Prophetess Rose Blackwell. One Monday night we were doing Intercessory Training and it is customary after training that we proceed to prayer. This particular Monday night Pastor Cynthia Bridges did a beautiful presentation on intercessory prayer. She then said Yvonne will you do the prayer? I reply, you did such a beautiful job why don’t you do it. As I walked to my seat, I thought about what I had said and turned to tell her I would lead the prayer. At that very moment, she had selected someone else. Immediately, I heard the Holy Spirit say, I will always have a ram in the bush. I don’t need you. I want you.

Pastor Bridges is a very anointed intercessor. I wanted to ride on her anointing. I had refused a request and missed an opportunity to serve God. My mind was messed up. I was repenting daily for being so stupid. All week long I was broken in my spirit. I was crying, Oh Lord, forgive me don’t take away your spirit from me The following Monday I led the prayer but I shared this confession with the people. WHY? It is important to be transparent with the people of God and perhaps someone would benefit from this. I learned two things: You can be careless with the anointing and lose it 2)God doesn’t need you to do anything but he Wants you. Intercessors are called and how wonderful to know that God wants to use us as intercessors. Intercessors are called to stand between God and man’s punishment, and between God and call down mercy and favor on his people. He wants to use us.

He has given us the authority to bind and loose, to allow or forbid. The Holy Spirit will teach us how to pray, what to pray for and when to pray We must learn to yield to the Holy Spirit and allow him to pray through us. There will be times when the Holy Spirit will take up in you through mourning and groaning. Yield to what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do.

Let me share this testimony. In each service of Standing in the Gap, we pray over the pictures of our love ones. In January I was facilitating the service and I asked Pastor Valerie Tucker to pray over the pictures. As she began to pray, I started moaning in the spirit. I said to myself, God, why am I so loud. Satan begin speaking in my ear i.e. it doesn’t take all of that, people are going to think you putting on etc. I moved away from everyone and stood by a window. The moaning and groaning were uncontrollable. When I resume the service, I say to the people “I rather cry now than be standing over a casket. In June, I received a call. It was my son’s cell phone but it was not his voice on the other end. A lady said “ Mrs. Perkins, I’m calling you to tell you your son was just shot on the next block. I said my husband and I will be right there. Before I hung up the phone I saw myself standing at that window moaning uncontrollably. Then I clearly heard the Holy Spirit say “You already took care of this” My son had been shot 3 times and one of his friends shot also. It was a drive-by shooting. In Chicago, sadly, that has become an almost daily occurrence. There was 8 drive-by shooting on that day, four victims died. Satan can not interpret the moans and groans. While you may not understand it either, your obedience can be the deliverance or salvation of someone. My son is alive today because of my obedience. Do it, yield to the Holy Spirit.

Intercessors are not judgmental nor religious. Intercessors maintain an intimate relationship with God, walk in obedience, always asking God to allow us to see through his eyes of compassion, hear the pain, see the pain of others. God is love and if you don’t have the love of God in your heart, you can not be an intercessor. I heard a pastor say “prophetic intercession is the ability to hear and see what God is speaking and showing you. Another pastor said you must have your ear to the mouth of God to hear what he is saying.

MORE TO COME; Role of an intercessor and Levels of intercession

SPEAK THE ANSWER NOT THE PROBLEM. THE ANSWER IS THE WORD OF GOD. Heavenly Father, here we are in response to your want ad. We heard you were looking for someone to stand in the gap. We are willing to live holy, walk in obedience and make any necessary sacrifice just to be used by you. Open our eyes to see as you see, our ears to hear your words. Anoint us to be part of your great army, soldiers marching on our knees to places we may never physically go but we arise in your power and authority. We wait, listening for your command as you give us strategic instruction that will cause us to be a mighty weapon in your hand and a terror to the enemy. We pledge to guard our eye, ear and mouth gates, keep a repenting and forgiving heart. We shut the door on anything that will allow Satan any legal rights to interfere with our prayers. We resist Satan but we submit to you. We are ever thankful to know that you don’t need us but you want to use us. We want to be used of you.